Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Delete Press publishes work by
established and emerging poets. We ask
ourselves the question: what does it feel like to be set on fire with an
odorless accelerant? We respond by
building chapbooks that are letterpress printed and handbound. Anti-gravity ephemera is also floated.

1 –
When did Delete Press first start? How have your original goals as a
publisher shifted since you started, if at all? And what have you
learned through the process?

Crane Giamo, Brad Vogler and I started
Delete Press in 2009 when we were all living in Fort Collins, Colorado.We’ve done ten paper chapbooks since then,
and the only thing that’s really changed for us is the medium.Crane is the press’s bookmaker (I edit, Brad
is webmaster) and as his skills have crystallized the intricacies of the
objects have changed.As this has
increased the cost and amount of time between each book, Brad and I decided to
launch an e-book series.We’ve published
four titles so far.We also have our own
projects, aspects of Delete—Crane is the proprietor of the letterpress
Pocalypstic Editions, Brad publishes Opon,
an online journal of long poems and process statements, and I do eccolinguistics
in the mimeograph tradition.One thing
I’ve learned is the importance of distancing yourself from the presswork—it’s
the only way a writer will trust you and the only way to properly present
another’s work.Another is what it means
to arrive at that point where all involved will trust that someone else’s idea
is a good one, what it means to build something with people you admire.

And also this: produce, produce, produce,
be irreverent, and keep promises no matter how embarrassingly long it may take.

2 –
What first brought you to publishing?

As far as Delete is concerned, a desire to
be of service publishing great work and the belief that this could be done with
Brad and Crane.

3 –
What do you consider the role and responsibilities, if any, of small
publishing?

To change the face of literature.

4 –
What do you see your press doing that no one else is?

I think we’re unique.After all, we’re not doing what other
wonderful operations are.

5 –
What do you see as the most effective way to get new books out into the world?

To be honest, my primary concern in this
regard is to make sure we’ve made something that when read brings
pleasure.The rest seems to take care of
itself.

But certainly digital transmissions and
friendships are the most effective way to get the word out.That’s difficult too, though, as it requires
a fair degree of diligence keeping up with what’s what.Basically, I participate in various forms of
reading and listening and that natural curiosity makes the connections I
cannot.

6 –
How involved an editor are you? Do you dig deep into line edits, or do you
prefer more of a light touch?

I stay utterly faithful to the work.In the case of small press poetry, submitted
materials tend to arrive in rigidly precise form.The editing in that regard has much to do
with finding the correct shape and feel of the book object or page, or screen,
the space around the content.I
certainly have made my fair amount of text edits, though.But even there, it has tended to be in
response to some imposition of format.

I am presently editing a book in which the
next-to-last line of the manuscript needed to go.I deleted it and explained politely to the
author why it was necessary.I was right,
and the author was agreeable.It’s not
always so easy.

That’s another thing I’ve learned—more
often than not (no one is perfect), trust your editor.

7 –
How do your books get distributed? What are your usual print runs?

Editions of Delete Press paper chaps have
ranged from 40 to 120 copies.The
e-books have gotten a few hundred downloads each.300 copies of the eccolinguistics mailer
go out periodically, for free.

8 –
How many other people are involved with editing or production? Do you work with
other editors, and if so, how effective do you find it? What are the benefits,
drawbacks?

I think I mentioned my wonderful experience
working with Brad and Crane, so I won’t say too much.Really I would just like to see them
more.We live in different parts of the
country now.

9–
How has being an editor/publisher changed the way you think about your own
writing?

Utterly.I primarily edit my work.

10–
How do you approach the idea of publishing your own writing? Some, such as Gary
Geddes when he still ran Cormorant, refused such, yet various Coach House
Press’ editors had titles during their tenures as editors for the press,
including Victor Coleman and bpNichol. What do you think of the arguments for
or against, or do you see the whole question as irrelevant?

Well, I’m not against it in principle, but
one who goes that route needs to be very careful.The offending person’s stature in the poetry
market must be such that the ego can be overlooked.In the case of coterie, I think a shared
critical apparatus has to be there or else the cliquishness doesn’t make much
sense.

I suspect that self-publishing through
one’s own operation didn’t always carry such a stigma, when the technology and
means of distribution were more prohibitive of an over-saturated field of
publishing writers and when the aesthetics we’ve inherited were just beginning
to take shape.Perhaps it is that the
vast good and cheap publishing opportunities for poets today means the
expectations for model behavior have changed.

11–
How do you see Delete Press evolving?

I don’t know.To be honest, Crane’s bookmaking abilities
have reached a point where we are reassessing what the chapbook line should
be.I suspect that we will also be doing
full-lengths in the near future.Brad is
pondering a new website.Delete Press
has changed and will change again, I know that.

12–
What, as a publisher, are you most proud of accomplishing? What do you think
people have overlooked about your publications? What is your biggest
frustration?

I’m proud that we’ve sold out of most everything.That might sound superficial, but it’s
not.The generous response from readers
has helped confirm my faith that, contrary to a popular belief, people actually
doread poetry.

But you have to be realistic about it.I wouldn’t say we’ve been overlooked—we’ve
been too busy making and publishing to notice in any case.You have to be tactical in your methods and
output depending on the work you are publishing.And you have to be willing to accept
anonymity.

For me the frustration is with trickle-down
poetics.I’m not looking for laurels but
I wish the embalmed would get out of the way.I just read a rather smug response by Ron Silliman to the identity
politics happening in poetry lately.The
gist of his blog screed is that humankind is headed for a cliff of epic
proportions, so there’s no sense getting riled up.Plus, he says, if the targets are
institutional then they’re misguided.Hell, even the police are our friends—verbatim!We’re just too far gone for any of that to
matter, says Ron Silliman.The problem
is that unless he’s rapture-bound, which he very well may be, who can say, then
Silliman is as stuck here in the only place we got as anyone.

The life of poetry and of literature is
always small press.Always.Chris Fritton printed these wonderful
broadsheets for the Buffalo Small Press Book Fair that are tacked to my office
walls: “Small Press / Everything for Everyone Nothing for Ourselves.”The words are Mike Basinski’s, or so I hear.An original Basinski gifted me is tacked next
to one of the broadsheets.I kind of live
according to that advice.

14–
How does Delete Press work to engage with your immediate literary
community, and community at large? What journals or presses do
you see Delete Press in dialogue with? How important do you see
those dialogues, those conversations?

Well, at one point I think Compline, LittleRed Leaves, Punch Press, and Delete considered getting a small corner of
AWP.That was maybe five years ago, I
don’t remember.I still dig what those
three are doing.

But honestly we at Delete are
omnivores.I know I am.Ugly Duckling Presse is stellar, of course,
and I am particularly fond of their translation series.michael mann’s unarmed is a powerful
little journal.One of my most cherished
possessions is a tiny, nondescript, side-stapled bit of ephemera from Luc
Fierens and François Liénard, PAPER WASTE SHOOTING!Boaat Press’s Some Simple Things Said By and About Humans by Brenda Iijima is a book whose physicality furthers
what’s there in the poem.Projective Industries, Further Other Book Works, Cuneiform Press—there are some master
bookmakers out there, all specializing in poetry.

15–
Do you hold regular or occasional readings or launches? How important do you
see public readings and other events?

We don’t organize launch readings or sell
wares at book fairs as we don’t have any stock to speak of.All the books are gone.I’ve organized readings, but not for
Delete.Readings are very important.

16–
How do you utilize the internet, if at all, to further your goals?

We advertise on the Internet and otherwise
read it.Reading is essential to a
publisher, for all the obvious reasons and more.

17–
Do you take submissions? If so, what aren’t you looking for?

Generally speaking, yes.We are fluid and keep ourselves open to what
comes in.We like adventurous work and
we know we want it when we see it.We
are in every way an experimental bunch.We also solicit most projects that we end up taking on.

18–
Tell me about three of your most recent titles, and why they’re special.

PORCHES by
Andrew Rippeon

Dancing in the Blue Sky: Stories by Geoffrey Gatza

ROPES by W.
Scott Howard and Ginger Knowlton

All of these literary works advance an
internal poetics while stimulating the senses.Each of them invokes their respective traditions while managing to
transcend lineage and enter into dialog with a contemporary moment.